2010-01-CA-049
For Immediate Release

KABUL, Afghanistan (Jan. 13) - An ISAF service member from the United States was killed today during an engagement with insurgents in eastern Afghanistan. In a separate engagement another ISAF service member from the United States died of his wounds today as a result of an IED strike in southern Afghanistan.

IMMEDIATE RELEASE

No. 033--10 January 15, 2010

DOD Identifies Army Casualty

The Department of Defense announced today the death of a soldier who was supporting Operation Enduring Freedom.

Spc. Kyle J. Wright, 22, of Romeoville, Ill., died Jan. 13 at Kandahar Air Field, Afghanistan, of wounds suffered earlier that day when enemy forces attacked his vehicle with an improvised explosive device in Kandahar province. He was assigned to the 2nd Battalion, 1st Infantry Regiment, 5th Stryker Brigade Combat Team, 2nd Infantry Division, Fort Lewis, Wash.

For more information media may contact the Fort Lewis public affairs office at 253-967-0152, 253-967-0147.

Kyle J. Wright was "a hell of a stand-up kid" who followed in the military footsteps of his father and grandfather out of "a sense of honor" and a desire to help improve the plight of women in Afghanistan.

The 22-year-old Army specialist from Romeoville was killed Wednesday when the Stryker vehicle he was riding in hit an improvised explosive device.

"They were interdicting drugs* and weapons on the main highway in Afghanistan," said his father, Rich Wright. "Their responsibility was security for the roadways."

"He was a hell of a stand-up kid. ... He was a professional soldier," said Wright, who is an employee in the Valley View School District with his wife and Kyle's stepmom, Tiffany Wright.

Rich Wright's son-in-law, Sgt. Zachary Greene, who is also deployed in Afghanistan and was Kyle Wright's supply sergeant, identified the body and will escort the body home.

"He had a sense of honor," Rich Wright said of his son. "His main motivation was the way they treat their women ... like farm animals. He wouldn't have it. He has three sisters, two mothers and a grandmother."

Kyle Wright graduated from Romeoville High School in 2006.

http://www.suntimes.com/news/metro/1992607,CST-NWS-soldier15.article

(He was a soldier, not a Marine, but it fits.)

The Daily Herald reports that he will be buried in Arlington National Cemetery.

* The day before his death, he linked to that CNN story in an email home and wrote, “This was us, on our own, with a couple of helicopters.”

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